Timor Mortis Conturbat Me
This
excellent article asks the question whether books are dead and
whether authors, in a professional sense, are dead. According to
the article's author, Ewan Morrison, the answer is obvious: OF
COURSE THEY'RE DEAD, YOU NUMPTY. Even if you loathe these
questions, the article is worth looking at, as it's by far the best
thing I've read on the topic.
I think Morrison is right. Not completely right, I'm sure. The JK Rowlings and Dan Browns will make money no matter what happens. But the idea of decent authors being able to make a career from writing is coming to an end. Authors could only ever make a modest living, but there's a heck of a different between living modestly and not living at all.
That outcome cuts two ways, however. For those like me who do currently make a living from writing, it's bad news. No ifs, no buts. Those making a living from the pen are like candle-sellers at the onset of electrification. We're going out of business. Not all of us, but most of us.
On the other hand, for committed 'amateurs' - for most Word Clouders, in other words - the horizon looks bright. Self-pub has gone from being a crazy cider-and-sandals option to perfectly normal. I suspect that it's now migrating again from normal to the default route for plenty of authors. There won't be much cash involved, but there's no reason why self-pubbers shouldn't gain real readerships, real followings, real acclaim, real success. We're not quite there yet - conventional publication is still the best route for those who can engineer it - but that future is getting ever closer.
(Oh, and if you're baffled by the incredibly pretentious title to this blog post, you'll find enlightenment here. Dunbar's poem, one of the earliest in English-English literature - as opposed to Anglo-Saxon English lit - is the best bit of gloom I kn0w. Makes George Osborne look like a crazy party-animal.)
(Oh, and I wear sandals and like cider. I'm not anti those things. Just, you know. The beards.)
I think Morrison is right. Not completely right, I'm sure. The JK Rowlings and Dan Browns will make money no matter what happens. But the idea of decent authors being able to make a career from writing is coming to an end. Authors could only ever make a modest living, but there's a heck of a different between living modestly and not living at all.
That outcome cuts two ways, however. For those like me who do currently make a living from writing, it's bad news. No ifs, no buts. Those making a living from the pen are like candle-sellers at the onset of electrification. We're going out of business. Not all of us, but most of us.
On the other hand, for committed 'amateurs' - for most Word Clouders, in other words - the horizon looks bright. Self-pub has gone from being a crazy cider-and-sandals option to perfectly normal. I suspect that it's now migrating again from normal to the default route for plenty of authors. There won't be much cash involved, but there's no reason why self-pubbers shouldn't gain real readerships, real followings, real acclaim, real success. We're not quite there yet - conventional publication is still the best route for those who can engineer it - but that future is getting ever closer.
(Oh, and if you're baffled by the incredibly pretentious title to this blog post, you'll find enlightenment here. Dunbar's poem, one of the earliest in English-English literature - as opposed to Anglo-Saxon English lit - is the best bit of gloom I kn0w. Makes George Osborne look like a crazy party-animal.)
(Oh, and I wear sandals and like cider. I'm not anti those things. Just, you know. The beards.)
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Silly thing is, I am sure most people know they aren't going to make Rowlian-esque bucks off the backs of their labours. Most of us just want to make enough to be able to keep on writing and not have to worry about fitting it in at 4am before going off, exhausted, to do a full day's work. Well, that's the dream, any way! I don't know about anyone else, but I don't know how much stamina I actually have to keep writing novels that may possibly sell for peanuts if I am incredibly lucky if I also have to work a demanding day job and raise my kids. Sure, I'll keep writing for fun... but that will ultimately lead to things like editing and the like slipping, because let's face it, if I'm doing it for fun, then I'm going to indulge in the fun stuff (the creating) and not the hard slog (revising / editing). How many great books are going to languish in drawers, half edited, simply because people don't have the time to finish them, nor the inclination because they know that the 'dream' of being a writer is now effectively an anachronism and just isn't going to happen, no matter how hard they try? I don't about any one else, but part of what keeps me going is 'the dream' of being a writer; it's that dream that makes me drag myself to the computer to edit chapter 2 *yet again* rather than sit down and watch multiple re-runs of Come Dine With Me whilst scoffing Maltesers until my gums ache!
Self publishing is definitely looking more and more attractive as the weeks slip by, I must admit.
But, you know what? Having read it, I've decided to shut down the net and work on my WIP instead. Stubborn it may be; counter intuitive it almost definitely is. But people who have a compulsion to write just can't help themselves.
My old business used to involve publishing magazines; ten years ago, people were telling us print and paper's dead, magazines (especially the marketing-based corporate ones that I published) were all going on the net. Sure, some did. The best didn't, or at least did alongside their traditional printed versions, rightly recognising the net and the printed page as two distinctly different media.
The examples about the music industry are interesting, but again, just as a lot is given away for free, the savvy labels are learning how to embrace new forms of distribution and the quality's still being paid for: you want to hear an unknown artist with potential? Cool, Youtube. Or your local music-based pub. You want to hear Beyonce, or the Foo Fighters? Cough up. ANd yes, they're the establishment, but new acts are continually breaking through and not 'giving it all away.'
'Bookselling' is still big business. Sure in time, a lot of that might migrate from paper to digital. But the lifeblood of that business will remain new artists, new authors. It might make it harder to cut through; but then, there have always been a lot of small publishers, selling not very many copies, whose authors make peanuts.
To really make it as an author, in a financial sense, is it really any harder for the majority than it always has been?
But we're writers. It's what we do. We just have to get on with it.
I saw a tweet by book blogger David Hebblethwaite this afternoon: 'I wonder how long it will be before someone writes an article entitled "Is this the end for "Are Books Dead?" articles.'
I'll carry on writing and learning as I've always done because I like it; as for the 'getting published' aspect, that's a whole different kettle of kippers. One wonders, is there any point? The validation would be nice. Anything else?
Ah well, there's nothing so constant as change.
Oh, and thanks for the link to that poem - but I was still none the wiser as to the meaning of the latin phrase. I just used on on-line translator (free, with lots of clickable flashy things). It informed me that the meaning is: 'Fear Deadly To derange'. Still none the wiser :)
I love to read, and I know lots of people out there just like me, so as long as there are people like me, writers need to write and publish books.
Although, if there is something I'll admit to, it is this. Not every type of book will remain popular. Cookbooks - prefer it on the ipad. Poems - ipad. Fiction, Historical or information - real book please...
Changes are ahead, but calm down people...there are worse things in life to worry about...
Seriously, someone once told me you could pay a publisher to publish your book at a cost of around £10,000 - is that true???
I have to say, fame certainly has a way of propping up some rubbish books... maybe, SS what you should do, is add someone famous to your story - then they'll pay you for the publicity...
So I suggest we start a Tandem story, I used to love doing them on here, laughing to myself right now with memories of Gerald and Julian - both created right here on cloud. :O)
Maybe I won't finish the book and there are some nice fests in Germany in October.
Not good for business, Harry!
Which of course it is...publishing I mean, not writing.
From this straw poll, he concludes that buying an e-book is far less likely to lead on to the reader even starting to read the book! People will buy e-books in greater numbers, and then not bother to read a high proportion of the books they own. Most people who buy a paper book at least begin to read it - even if it's 'A Brief History of Time,' notoriously bought and unfinished by vast numbers of people.
There's only one numpty around here and that's Mr Morrison, who seems to have too much time on his hands.
There will always be books in one form or another and books need writers...films need writers, tv needs writers, computer games need writers....what ever comes next when my 13 year old has grandchildren will need writers.
Things change, Writers and the industry will adapt, tell me something I don't know.
As for Caducean Confusions: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me = The fear of death disturbs me. Only it sounds better in Latin, no? Almost Hogwartian.
I have literally put aside 'Getting Published' to type this (chalk up another one) and the publishing industry strikes me as plain bonkers. (technical term) How it has survived in this state is beyond my limited reasoning. Being an ex-banker (boo, hiss) I'm surprised your head didn't spontaneously combust when you first entered the industry.
I think things are long over due change and writers/authors should see opportunity. I also think authors should get on the front foot, Society of Authors in particular and put up a united front. It absolutley ridiculous that the authors be the ones to suffer in all this. We will either end up like farmers, under the heel of the supermarkets or we could fight for our livelihoods.
We are at a tipping point and someone should take things by the scruff.
Alistair - but my head did combust!
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